Sunday, June 14, 2015

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an
act, but a habit.”

-- Aristotle

Back in early autumn, when the media were engaged in predicting
Hart Trophy winners as the NHL’s most valuable player, there was the usual
subject, and there were theoutside-the-boxpicks.

There is a name conspicuous by its absence among those
linked predictions. A name that was called to accept the trophy three times
over a six season span – in 2008, 2009, and 2013. One that was also named a
finalist in 2010.Washington Capitals
left-winger Alex Ovechkin was named as a finalist for the Trophy in 2015, the
fifth time in the last eight seasons he was among the three finalists for the
award.

The 2014-2015 season for Ovechkin was noteworthy if only for
its contrast to his 2013-2014 season that was dominated by commentary about his
plus-minus number, a minus-35.Let us
briefly recap.In the entire history of
the NHL, only four players – Rick Martin, Mario Lemieux, Rick Nash, and
Ovechkin – recorded a season in which they finished with both 40 or more goals
and a minus-35 or worse.Ovechkin alone
has a season – last season – with 50 or more goals and a minus-35.

You would have thought he was on ice for just about every
goal scored against the Caps and that his utter lack of interest or attention
to defense was the prima facie cause of each score.The fact is, he did not lead (or trail,
depending on your point of view) the league’s forwards in goals scored against
while on ice at 5-on-5 (he finished tied with James van Riemsdyk and Phil
Kessel for the third worst total (61) behind Jason Spezza (66) and Milan
Michalek (68)).The trouble was that he
was on ice for only 34 goals scored by the Caps at 5-on-5, tied for 168th among
583 forwards (numbers from war-on-ice.com).You could say he didn’t
make teammates better, or teammates couldn’t finish.Chicken, meet egg.

Forward to this season.One thing that certainly seems lost in the conversation among the hockey
pundit class this season is the plus-45 improvement in Ovechkin’s plus-minus
number over last season (he finished this season with a plus-10).It is not that he shaved most of that off his
goals scored against number.On ice for
50 goals against at 5-on-5 this season, he realized an 11-goal improvement over
last season.Clearly, he is not now, nor
is he ever likely to be a Selke Trophy finalist for best defensive forward
(even if he did receive votes for the award in 2008, 2009, and 2010).However, he was on ice for 54 goals scored by
the Caps at 5-on-5, tied for 24th best in the league among forwards and a
20-goal improvement over last season.

Hockey, you see, is a team game.

But, this being a review of the 2014-2015 season for
Ovechkin, let us stick to that.There
is, of course, his signature talent – scoring goals. For the third consecutive
season he will have the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s top
goal scorer to himself, the first time that a player has won the award three
times in succession and the first time a player led the league in goals three
consecutive years since Brett Hull did it with the St. Louis Blues in 1989-1990
through 1991-1992.It is his fifth time
winning the Richard in the last eight seasons.Only two players have led the NHL in goals scored more times than the
five that Ovechkin led the league: Bobby Hull (seven times) and Phil Esposito
(six).He is currently tied with Wayne
Gretzky, Charlie Conacher, Gordie Howe, and Maurice Richard with five seasons
leading the league.

It was not as if he played favorites in scoring goals this
season, either.He scored at least one
goal against 26 of the 29 other clubs in the league in 2014-2015, only Detroit,
Calgary, and Vancouver spared his lighting the red light.He was most productive, as one might expect,
against divisional opponents.He had
five goals in four games against the New York Rangers, four in four games
against the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins, and four in five games
against the Columbus Blue Jackets, all of them Metropolitan Division rivals.

Ovechkin did not pile up goal totals against stiffs,
either.In 39 games against the other 15
teams to qualify for the postseason he finished with 28 goals, a 59-goal pace
over 82 games.That breaks down to 18
goals in 24 games against Eastern Conference playoff qualifiers (a 62-goal pace
per 82 games) and 10 goals in 15 games against Western Conference playoff
qualifiers (a 55-goal pace per 82 games).

Finishing the season with 53 goals to second-place Steven
Stamkos’ 43 marked the third time in his career that Ovechkin finished with ten
or more goals more than the runner-up in goals scored.He did it in 2007-2008, when his 65 goals
were 13 more than runner-up Ilya Kovalchuk; and his 56 goals in 2008-2009 were
ten more than runner-up Jeff Carter.Stamkos is the only other player in the post 2004-2005 lockout era to
finish a season with ten more goals than the league runner-up, 2011-2012 when
his 60 goals were ten more than Evgeni Malkin’s 50.

The 2014-2015 season was Ovechkin’s fifth in ten career
seasons in which he had a new head coach. His ability to adjust to the changes
continues to be impressive.He finished
his first season under new coach Barry Trotz with 53 goals.Compare that to his previous experiences
under new management:

2005-2006: Glen Hanlon (52 goals in 81 games of his rookie
season)

2007-2008: Bruce Boudreau (51 goals in 61 games after
Boudreau took over in November, a 69-goal pace for a full season)

2011-2012: Dale Hunter (34 goals in 60 games after Hunter
took over in November, a 46-goal pace for a full season)

2012-2013: Adam Oates (32 goals in 48 games of the
abbreviated season, a 55-goal pace for a full season)

Ovechkin’s underlying numbers merit notice as well.His Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 (53.7) was
better than the team as a whole (51.4), and it was a substantial improvement
over last season (49.3) despite the fact that his fraction of offensive versus
defensive zone starts, relative, dropped substantially this season (from 12.3
to 7.9; numbers from war-on-ice.com).

He continues to produce at a high output offensively while
maintaining a physical edge to his play.His hits differential per game (hits less hits taken) of 1.86 this
season was the highest in the eight years for which data are available from
war-on-ice.com. It was the fifth time in those eight years that his hits
differential exceeded 1.00 per game.

That physical dimension to his play (he finished tenth in
the league in hits among forwards) did not affect his durability.He played in 81 games this season, missing
only the Caps’ 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on March 5th.In ten seasons, Ovechkin has appeared in 832
of a possible 858 regular season and playoff games played by the Capitals (97.0
percent).Of the 26 games he missed in
that span, 14 were due to injury, five were due to suspensions, three were due
to undisclosed reasons (thought to be a knee injury requiring minor surgery),
two were for personal reasons, and two were for other reasons not identified
(source: tsn.ca).

Fearless’ Take:Since
Alex Ovechkin came into the league in 2005-2006 he has 475 goals.Over that same span, the runner-up in total
goals is Jarome Iginla, with 339 (in six more games, for what it’s worth).Let’s put that into another perspective.Ovechkin has more total goals scored than any
player since the 2001-2002 season.Iginla
is second with 467 (in 344 more games).He has six 50-goal seasons since coming into the league in 2005-2006,
including this season.No other player
has more than two (Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Steven Stamkos).In fact, since the 1982-1983 season, no
player has more 50-goal seasons overall than Ovechkin (Wayne Gretzky and Mario
Lemieux have six as well).As for the
2014-2015 season, Ovechkin finished the season with 53 goals, 81 points, and a
plus-10.Only Phil Esposito (66 goals,
133 points, plus-55), Mike Bossy (61/123/plus-30), and Marcel Dionne
(58/135/plus-55), all of whom played in a much more offense-oriented era, had
better seasons in those numbers at age 29 than Ovechkin did this season.

Cheerless’ Take: What’s with the tooth?Is he ever going to get that fixed?Anyway, there’s still that whole “Henrik
Lundqvist” thing.Third straight time
Ovechkin and the Caps lost to him in a seven-game playoff series.In his postseason career, Ovechkin is just
13-for-153 shooting against Lundqvist (8.5 percent shooting), 23-for-183
against everyone else he’s faced (12.6 percent).

Odd Ovechkin Fact: Alex Ovechkin is the only winner
(apparently) in the history
of the Hart Trophy to have won it at different positions – left wing in 2008
and 2009, right wing in 2013.

Game to Remember: February 15th versus Anaheim. A player with a league-leading 11 game winning goals might
have a number of games from which to pick.
Or, it might be the Caps’ last pre-season game, one in which he scored a
goal but might be remembered more for the beginning of one of the more heartwarming bonds between player and fan this season. We will go with a mid-winter game to wrap up the Caps’ west-coast road
trip. Having split the first two games
of the trip, an overtime win in San Jose and a loss in Los Angeles, the Caps
headed to Anaheim to face the Ducks and former head coach Bruce Boudreau.

The Caps spotted the Ducks a 1-0 lead barely a minute into
the context, but it took Ovechkin and the Capitals just 16 seconds to tie the
game. Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff
cleanly from Ryan Getzlaf, drawing it back to Ovechkin at the edge of the
faceoff circle to the left of goalie John Gibson. Ovechkin settled the puck with his left skate
and snapped a shot through three Anaheim defenders and past Gibson to tie the
contest. The Ducks scored four minutes
later, but Ovechkin tied the game once more on a power play, one-timing a feed
from Mike Green from the top of the left wing circle past Gibson at the 10:26
mark.

Washington took a two-goal lead in the second period, Marcus
Johansson putting the Caps ahead, then Andre Burakovsky benefiting from two
Anaheim defenders closing on Ovechkin to take a pass and rip a shot off Gibson’s
glove and in to make it 4-2. With the
Caps hanging on to a 4-3 lead in the third period, Ovechkin started, then set
up the clincher. Anaheim’s Clayton
Stoner had trouble finding a loose puck in his skates, and Ovechkin jumped in
to poke it free. It started a two-on-one
rush with Burakovsky. As Ovechkin carried the puck across the Ducks’ blue line,
he curled a pass around defenseman Ben Lovejoy to Burakovsky, who deked Gibson
to the ice and tucked the puck around him to seal the Caps’ 5-3 win. It was Burakovsky’s first two-goal game of his
career. For Ovechkin, it was his second
four-point game of the season and the 19th of his career.

Game to Forget: March 21st versus Winnipeg. When the Caps touched down in Winnipeg in late March it was
to face a team scrambling for a playoff spot. The Jets were on a three-game
winning streak and were looking to extend it against their former division
rivals. If the Caps came out flat, they
would pay. They did, and they did. The Captain didn’t provide much in the way of
inspiration. Take this goal by Mark
Stuart to open the scoring, and look who is lollygagging into the frame as the
goal is being scored…

…and who gets caught trying to fly out of the zone just
before Mark Scheifele scores…

Ovechkin was on the ice for an empty netter by Adam Lowry
for good measure in the Jets’ 3-0 win.
It was his only minus-3 of the season. It was one of only
11 games this season in which he recorded two or fewer shots on goal.

He was not the difference-maker he was in the regular season
(or perhaps quite what the Caps needed in the playoffs).The club was 3-2 in games in which he scored
a goal, losing the last two of those games (Games 2 and 7 against the Rangers).He went the last five games of the postseason
just 1-for-23 in shooting (4.3 percent).His Corsi numbers were generally good against the Rangers in the second
round series (54.4 percent and plus-23 at 5-on-5; numbers from war-on-ice.com), but if you’re a goal scorer,
it’s the goals that matter, too. Oh, and there was this matter, too, that did not turn into his own "Messier Moment."

In the end…

If you look at this season in isolation, it was a remarkable
one for Alex Ovechkin – tops in goals, tied for fourth in points, lapped the
field in shots on goal (almost 100 more than next in line Rick Nash), a team
record in power play goals (25; only one player – Ilya Kovalchuk – had more in
a season since 1995-1996), led his team back to the playoffs and into the
second round for just the 11th time in 40 seasons in franchise history after
missing the postseason altogether last year.

But this was not a season “in isolation.”It was entirely consistent with his body of
work established over a decade, and it compares well in the context of NHL
history.He is among the elite in NHL
history in goal scoring (third all-time in goals per game behind Mike Bossy and
Mario Lemieux).He has, as demonstrated
above, put up scoring totals it took other players many more years and games to
amass.

That Ovechkin continued to produce in 2014-2015 at the level
he has over previous nine seasons, especially considering the life cycle of
goal scorers in the NHL is, if not utterly unique in NHL history, uncommonly
rare. When Wayne Gretzky was 29 years old (as Ovechkin is now), his last 50
goal season was in his rear-view mirror.At 29, Mike Bossy had his last 50-goal season.Mario Lemieux would have two more 50-goal
seasons after his 29th birthday, but he was already breaking down from illness
and injury.Among contemporaries who had
50-goal seasons (since the 2004-2005 lockout):

Dany Heatley has not had one since he was 26 years old, nine
seasons ago.

Ilya Kovalchuk’s last one was at age 24, and at 29 he played
his last NHL season (11 goals in 37 games with New Jersey).

Jonathan Cheechoo had his only 50-goal season in the first
year after the lockout, at age 25.

Corey Perry has one 50-goal season, that coming at the age
of 25, five seasons ago.

Sidney Crosby seems still capable of doing it in the
abstract, but his last 50-goal season was at age 22, six seasons ago.

Only Steven Stamkos appears capable of dethroning Ovechkin
as the preeminent goal scorer in the league at the moment, but his last
50-goal season came four years ago at age 21.

Alex Ovechkin stands at the pinnacle of his sport as an
offensive weapon.And no player since
perhaps Gordie Howe combines his offensive production with as physical an edge
to his game. In the modern era of the sport, since the expansion in the
mid-1960’s, he is unique.For some, that
seems not to be good enough, that there are flaws in his game (defense).Well, sure, and the Mona Lisa has flaws,
too. He faced a lot of criticism last year for his defensive performance, and this season started with persistent questions about his ability to "buy in" to a new coach's philosophy that might not play to his strengths. He did tighten up his play in his own end, he did buy in to what would be his fifth coach's philosophy, and he managed to record an historic season. Alex Ovechkin has made it a
decade-long habit of excellence.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).